“If the Court please, that’s argumentative,” Calvert objected.

  Judge Bolton smiled. “It is argumentative, but this witness, as an expert, has given reasons for his conclusions which give counsel the right to question his conclusions. The objection is overruled. Answer the question, Doctor.”

  The witness pursed his lips, shifted his position in the witness chair. “Of course, I can’t duplicate the defendant’s reasoning. She may well have contemplated suicide.”

  “Then the murder of Fern Driscoll would have done her no good?”

  The witness squirmed uncomfortably. “That, I believe, is obvious.”

  “Now,” Mason went on, “assuming that the decedent, whom you autopsied, had become panic-stricken when the car started to go over the grade and had jerked open the door on the right-hand side of the car trying to get out, would the position of the body, under those circumstances, have been the same as that of the body shown in this photograph?”

  “Well … it could have been.”

  “And if the decedent had done that,” Mason said, “isn’t it possible that the doorpost of the automobile could have struck the back of her head at the first impact and left a depressed fracture exactly such as you have described?”

  “Well … I don’t know.”

  “Of course, you don’t know,” Mason said. “You’ve testified to a whole series of surmises. Now, I’m asking you if it isn’t possible that the injury could have been sustained in that manner.”

  “It is possible, yes.”

  “And isn’t it equally possible, as far as anything that you know of your own knowledge, from anything that you discovered at the autopsy, that the injury could just as well have been caused in that manner as by a blow inflicted with a round bar?”

  “Well … perhaps.”

  “Yes or no?” Mason asked.

  “Yes,” the harassed witness blurted.

  “Thank you,” Mason said, smiling. “That’s all.”

  Calvert put on the stand the manager of the Consolidated Sales and Distribution Company, who testified that the defendant had applied for a position with him and had given her name as Fern Driscoll; that she had given the social security number of Fern Driscoll; that she had stated her place of residence was Lansing, Michigan; and had further stated that she had recently arrived in the city and was looking for work.

  Mason asked no questions on cross-examination.

  The manager of the apartment house testified that the defendant rented an apartment, giving the name of Fern Driscoll and showing a driving license and social security card in the name of Fern Driscoll.

  Again there was no cross-examination.

  “Call George Kinney,” Calvert said.

  George Kinney held up his right hand, was sworn, gave his place of residence as Lansing, Michigan, and was, it turned out, the cashier of the Baylor Manufacturing and Development Company. George Kinney was also a shrewd individual who listened carefully to questions and had apparently been coached by some astute attorney as to exactly what he was to say, and exactly what he was to refrain from saying.

  “Were you acquainted with an employee of the Baylor Manufacturing and Development Company named Fern Driscoll?”

  “I was. Yes, sir.”

  “How long had she been in the employ of the corporation?”

  “Two years, approximately.”

  “When did she sever her connections with the company?”

  “On the ninth of last month.”

  “At the time she severed her connections, did you give her any money?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How much?”

  “I gave her a check covering the amount of her wages and severance pay.”

  “Did you give her anything else?”

  “No, sir.”

  “During the period of her employment, had you come to know Fern Driscoll personally?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “At the time she terminated her employment, did you discuss with her the fact that her action was rather abrupt, and did she then and there make a statement to you as to the reason she was leaving the company?”

  “Objected to,” Mason said. “Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial. Hearsay as far as this defendant is concerned.”

  “Sustained!” Judge Bolton snapped.

  “Did you notice her appearance at that time?”

  “I did.”

  “Was there anything unusual in her appearance?”

  “Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. Not binding on the defendant,” Mason said.

  “I’ll hear the testimony,” Judge Bolton said. “I think that may be pertinent. In view of the contention of the prosecution, the objection is overruled.”

  Kinney said, “She was very shaken. She was very white. She undoubtedly had been crying. Her eyes were swollen and red.”

  “That’s all,” Calvert said.

  “You say that you knew her rather intimately?” Mason asked.

  “I knew her personally, yes.”

  “By the way,” Mason asked, “did she own an automobile?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you know what kind of car it was?”

  “I’m not sure of the make of the car, but I think it was a Ford. It was, I believe, about three years old. She had recently purchased it secondhand.”

  “That car was registered in Michigan? It had Michigan license plates?”

  “She lived in Michigan, purchased the car in Michigan, and drove the car in Michigan,” Kinney said with polite sarcasm. “One would naturally assume it had Michigan license plates.”

  “Thank you,” Mason said with elaborate politeness. “That’s all.”

  “I have one further question which perhaps I should have asked on direct examination,” Calvert said.

  “Very well,” Judge Bolton said. “Ask your question.”

  “Shortly prior to the time Miss Driscoll left your employ, did Mr. Forrester Baylor have you withdraw rather a large sum of money from the bank for him, and did you turn that money over to him in cash?”

  “Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial,” Mason said.

  “If the Court please,” Calvert said, “I would like to show that, at the time she left Michigan, Miss Driscoll had a rather large amount of money in her purse. I have shown that the defendant could not possibly have acquired some four thousand dollars in addition to her own bank account and salary check by any legitimate means. I would like to be permitted to show by inference that Fern Driscoll received rather a large sum of money from Forrester Baylor.”

  “You intend to show that by inference?”

  “It is the only way I can show it, Your Honor.”

  Judge Bolton shook his head. “The objection is sustained.”

  “If the Court please,” Calvert insisted, “I feel that we are entitled to resort to circumstantial evidence to prove motivation for the death of Fern Driscoll, particularly as we intend to show that Carl Harrod had acquired all this information.”

  “You may resort to circumstantial evidence,” Judge Bolton said, “and draw logical inferences from it, but you can’t establish the circumstantial evidence by inference.”

  “Very well,” Calvert said, “I have no further questions of this witness.”

  “No further cross-examination,” Mason said.

  “Call your next witness,” Judge Bolton said.

  “Call Sgt. Holcomb,” Calvert announced.

  Holcomb took the witness stand, testified that he was a member of the Homicide Squad; that he had been so employed on the second of the month; that on that date he had been called to an apartment occupied by Carl Harrod; that the person who had called him had given her name as Nellie Harrod and had stated that she was the wife of Carl Harrod; that when he arrived there Carl Harrod was dead.

  “Did you make a search of the apartment occupied by this defendant under the name of Fern Driscoll?”

  “I did.”

  “Did you find any money in that apartment?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I found four hundred and thirty-six dollars in currency of various denominations, and then I found forty new one-hundred-dollar bills.”

  “No other money?”

  “No other money.”

  “I may wish to recall Sgt. Holcomb later for other aspects of the case,” Calvert said, “but I have no further questions in regard to this matter. You may cross-examine, Mr. Mason.”

  Mason said, “I have no questions.”

  Sgt. Holcomb left the stand.

  Foley Calvert said, “If the Court please, I have one more witness I would like to put on before the noon adjournment. This witness will give you very brief testimony.”

  “Very well,” Judge Bolton said, glancing at the clock.

  “Miss Irma Karnes,” Calvert called.

  Irma Karnes, a rather thin, young woman with a prominent, pinched nose, small lips, and eyes which peered out through heavy-lensed glasses, came forward and took her seat on the witness stand.

  “Your name is Irma Karnes? You reside here in this city?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And were so residing on the second of this month?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What was your occupation on the second of this month?”

  “I was manager of the notions department in the Arcade Novelty Company.”

  “And where is the Arcade Novelty Company, with reference to the apartment occupied by the defendant, if you know?”

  “About three and a half blocks.”

  “Are you open during the evening?”

  “Yes, until eleven-thirty.”

  “Can you describe the nature of the business?”

  “It is a varied business. There is a penny arcade, so called, with the peep-show type of entertainment. There are electric guns shooting at moving game and electric machine guns shooting at airplanes. In fact, there are a whole host of novelty machines. Then back in the arcade we keep a line of notions and novelties.”

  “Such as what?” Calvert asked.

  “Bottle openers, ice picks, corkscrews, tumblers, plastic buckets for ice, thermal containers for ice cubes, needles, threads, buttons, neckties, shaving supplies, razor blades. In short, a whole list of notions and novelties of the kind persons might want to buy at night.”

  “You mentioned ice picks?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, do you remember any transaction connected with ice picks on the second of this month?”

  “Yes, sir. I do indeed.”

  “What was that transaction?”

  “A young woman came in and bought three ice picks. As it happened, those were all of the ice picks we had on display in the little glass compartment where we keep the ice picks. After she had gone, I went to replace the stock and then found that we had only half a dozen ice picks left in stock.”

  “So what did you do then?” Calvert asked.

  “Is this relevant to the case?” Judge Bolton asked.

  “Quite relevant, Your Honor.”

  “Very well, go on. There seems to be no objection on the part of defense counsel. However, it would seem to me to be somewhat remote.”

  “It is simply for the purpose of making an identification, if the Court please.”

  “Very well. She may answer.”

  The witness said, “I put those six ice picks in the display stand. I took some Scotch tape and price tags, preparing to put price tags on the ice picks, but before I did so, I looked up the catalog number and put a gross of ice picks on our want list. It was then I discovered that there had been a paste-over in the catalog and that ice picks had gone up in price.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “The other ice picks had been thirty-eight cents, three for a dollar. I found I would have to sell the new ice picks at forty-one cents straight, in order to keep our margin of profit, so I put the new price on those ice picks.”

  “And were some of those ice picks purchased that same evening while you were there in the store?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Who purchased them?”

  She pointed a long finger at Mildred Crest. “The defendant came in and purchased three ice picks.”

  “At the new price?”

  “At the new price.”

  “And that new price was written on labels fastened to the ice picks and covered with transparent plastic tape?”

  “Yes.”

  “And those were the three ice picks which were purchased by the defendant in this case?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That is all. You may cross-examine,” Calvert said.

  “Just a moment,” Judge Bolton announced. “It appears that it is time for the usual noon recess. Court will take a recess until two o’clock this afternoon. The defendant is remanded to custody.”

  Chapter 12

  Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake sat in the little, private dining room in the restaurant which they patronized so frequently when Mason was in court.

  Mason, regarding his plate in frowning concentration, hardly touched his food. “They’ve got everything mixed up now,” he said at length.

  “You mean the ice pick?” Drake asked.

  Mason nodded. “Their anxiety to force an identification of the defendant as the one who purchased the murder weapon means they got the wrong person, and if they did that, they must have the wrong ice pick.”

  “After all,” Della Street said, “there is a certain superficial resemblance between Mildred Crest and me.”

  Mason nodded. “This is just another one of those cases of mistaken personal identification.

  “In the mind of the average man, circumstantial evidence most frequently results in a miscarriage of justice. Actually, circumstantial evidence is the best evidence we have. It is only our interpretation of circumstantial evidence which makes for miscarriages of justice. The most deadly, dangerous evidence, the one which has resulted so many, many times in miscarriages of justice, is personal identification evidence.”

  “But how do you know they have the wrong ice pick?” Drake asked.

  Mason said, “I planted one ice pick in Harrod’s apartment at a time when I was satisfied he was trying to lay a foundation for blackmail. I hoped Harrod might become confused. Of course, at the time I had no idea he was fatally wounded.”

  “And now you think it was Nellie who became confused?” Drake asked.

  “Not Nellie,” Mason said. “The police were the ones who walked into the trap.”

  “What happened?”

  “They found that some woman, whom they may or may not know was Katherine Baylor, had bought three ice picks; that thereafter some other woman had been in and bought three more, and that this second purchase could be differentiated from the first because there was a different price tag.”

  “So what happened?” Della Street asked.

  “They talked to the girl who was running the place. She remembered the two transactions. Naturally, it occurred to the police that if they could prove that Mildred Crest was the one who bought the second batch of ice picks, and that those ice picks could be distinguished by the new price mark, they would have a perfect case against Mildred.”

  “And so they forced an identification?” Paul Drake asked.

  “They probably forced the identification to this extent—they arranged for Irma Karnes to have an opportunity to see Mildred Crest when Mildred didn’t know she was under observation. They didn’t have a line-up. They simply gave the witness an opportunity for a surreptitious survey.

  “And, of course, they used all their power of suggestion in telling Irma Karnes that they knew they had the girl in custody who had bought the ice picks; that it was simply a question of having her make the identification.”

  “So she made the identification?” Della Street asked.

  Mason nodded.

  “Just watch the expression on the face of that witness when she sees me!” Della said gleefully.

  “Just how are you going to spring your trap?” Drake asked Mason.

  “There,” Mason said, “is the question. This is a case of mistaken identification. It’s like any one of a thousand other cases. Only in this case we know the answer. We know the real purchaser and the police don’t. When I confront this witness with Della Street, and the witness recognizes Della as the one who made the subsequent purchase of ice picks, there’ll be a lot of commotion in court.”

  “But suppose she doesn’t remember it was Della?” Drake asked.

  “Then,” Mason said thoughtfully, “my client might be in one hell of a jam, Paul. Of course, Della can always get on the stand and swear that she was the one who bought the ice picks, but in view of the fact she is working with me, her testimony would be taken with a grain of salt.… Judge Bolton will believe her, I think.”

  “The judge would,” Drake said, “but how about a jury later on?”

  “There, of course, is the rub,” Mason admitted. “Judge Bolton knows me well enough to know that, if I put Della Street on the stand, it will be because I am absolutely convinced of the truth of her testimony. He doesn’t know Della Street personally, but he knows she has been with me for a long while and is a trusted, confidential employee. He’ll believe her.

  “However, when Irma Karnes sees Della Street, it’s almost certain that she will then realize she has made a mistake and will change her testimony.”

  “So what do you do?” Drake asked.

  “So,” Mason said, “I cross-examine this woman. I tie her up and get her so far out on a limb that when she is forced to back up she goes all to pieces.”

  “Then what happens?” Drake asked.

  “Then,” Mason said, “even if Judge Bolton binds the defendant over, I have a record on this witness so that when I get her in front of a jury later on, I’ll mix her up like scrambled eggs. She’ll be giving her entire testimony on the defensive.”

  “How about waiting until you do get her in front of a jury?” Drake asked. “Wouldn’t it be better, since Judge Bolton will probably bind the defendant over anyway, to wait and pull this in front of a jury?”